


Put It Behind You

by Merfilly



Series: One Chance to Set it Right [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 02:39:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14251293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Plo counsels Shaak Ti, to try and avert more pain.





	Put It Behind You

Plo fitted his mask and goggles into place, leaving the chamber that was safe for him on this world they had migrated to. He had been watching, analyzing the continuing problem for days, and wished now to put an end to it. Nor was it difficult for him to track the person that was the trouble; he'd known Shaak since she had been a padawan, a thing he was about to lean on heavily.

"Master," Shaak greeted, as he joined her outside their dwelling. 

"Shaak," he began, and watched as she went to a more guarded stance and her lekku stiffened.

"What may I do for you?"

"Let go of your anger and mistrust for Ahsoka." Plo moved to where he could lean on the wall, as Shaak tried to focus on the plants in the garden, her self-appointed therapy to nurture her need to care for life.

"You were not there!" she finally accused.

"No, I was not. But, you are not so angry with the men, and I know it was a legion of such that marched behind Skywalker. You take the brunt of the Captain's anger over his fallen soldier, Fives, with guilt and resignation. Yet her, you hold accountable for the master's actions."

Shaak stopped and settled back on her heels among the plants. "Everyone knows how close to him she is."

Plo made a noise. "She was, yes. And she owed him her freedom and life alike, because of our mistakes, Shaak. We failed her, and he did not. So yes, she grieves for him, but she is not his creature to control, nor will she follow his path!"

Shaak looked up at him, then shook her head. "It's … she walked away. She's got several months of unaccounted time, and conveniently walks back into our lives as he Falls?"

In those words, Plo heard the hint of the true cause of all of this, and he moved to kneel at the edge of the garden, reaching for her hand.

"My dear friend, I need you to understand that you are looking at that completely wrong," he said once she had given the hand. He pushed the image to her of Ahsoka gazing at them, the official apology that had been anything but, and Ahsoka's choice which had obviously torn at the young one's very soul. "We threw her to a pack of anoobas, and only two people believed in her. One of those people saved her," Plo said. "And then Mace Windu told her it was all as the Force intended, basically, rather than admit his strategy and reading of the shatterpoints had guided us all into a horrible mistake with her?

"Put yourself in her shoes, and tell me how you could have been true to yourself in that moment."

Shaak closed her eyes, and held onto his hand tightly as she began to understand. Ahsoka had been betrayed twice over by the events of the trial, by people she had trusted.

"You truly do not think she is in danger of Falling, or of turning on us? Even with that kind of history?"

Plo snorted, a humanism he'd picked up from his longtime partner, Micah Giiett. "Shaak Ti, I think that young woman is more in the Light than any of us, and we would do well to understand that she has faced more trials in a shorter span of time than any sentient should have."

Shaak slowly nodded, finally opening her eyes. "I will make peace with the small huntress," she promised.

"Good. Otherwise Lia will probably insist the pair of you come to her for therapy," Plo said, still amazed that his agoraphobic, oxygen-fearing friend had opted to come with them so that they would have a skilled healer. He would insist she return to Dorin before the child came, but it had been useful to have her for the few other survivors they had gathered to them.

"I am under the impression she can be as ruthless as — as Vokara." Grief colored the woman's voice, before she could drag it under control.

"Shaak… have you let yourself grieve those you saw struck down in the Temple?" Plo asked softly.

"It is not the Jedi way," she answered rotely.

"Are you hiding behind that statement out of belief… or because grieving those we lost means grieving what was done to your many, many cadets and young men?" Plo pressed.

She had to look away from him then, knowing that he freely claimed those same young men as 'brave sons' and they had tried to kill him, made his Commander turn on his own brothers to save his life. Plo watched those realizations play over the lekku, and quietly stood up.

"There is nothing inherently wrong in any emotion, Shaak. It is in letting those emotions dictate the next step, or color our interactions with other survivors, where harm is done."

* * *

Shaak Ti moved to where she could watch without intruding, as Ahsoka and Bultar traded the task of teaching Rex and Wolffe the art of Teräs Käsi. Bultar, long since a master of that discipline and other weaponless fighting styles, was complimenting and only rarely correcting the younger woman in her form. Ahsoka took the corrections with good grace, showing a muted joy in the learning, when most of the time she was so solemn.

Shaak knew good and well that had too much to do with her own attitude toward the younger Togruta. Plo was very correct in his assessment, though, and she needed to fully put that behind them. 

Watching gave her time to see many things. She could see the care and devotion that Ahsoka had in protecting the two men, by giving them a new skill, one that combined fitness and prowess of the body with mental discipline designed to stop Force abilities from having effect. She could see the slight imbalances in Ahsoka's movements, an indicator of a recent or ongoing growth spurt. She could tell, as the colors of the lekku fluctuated, that the young woman was mourning deeply, and only rising from it with Bultar's lessons, or the men doing a maneuver well.

All of the impetuous, hot-headed, reckless attitude seemed to be lacking, the truest sign yet of the scars left by the last three, nearly four years on the child that Shaak Ti had shepherded through her Rites of Adulthood on Shili.

Shaak felt shamed by her actions now, both in dealing with Ahsoka since reaching Dorin, and in not understanding how the girl had turned her back on the Order itself.

As the lesson wound down, Ahsoka turned toward her immediately, an indication that she had been aware of Shaak already. Bultar looked that way after a moment, then firmly guided both men back into the house to begin dinner.

"You wish to see me, Master Ti?" Ahsoka said with formal politeness in her lekku and tone alike.

Shaak cleared her mind of all other distractions, and focused fully on the young huntress's face, letting her own lekku be more expressive than normal to show the depth of her words. "I have wronged you repeatedly, since you crossed my path again, Ahsoka Tano, Huntress of Shili," she began. "And before that, I was a part of a travesty that was committed against you as well."

Ahsoka's eyes went wide, almost capturing the more innocent expressions of her youth, but she did not interrupt.

"I have not come to this conclusion alone, but had to have it shown to me. Which compounds my transgression, I admit, for it is not the way of the Jedi to place blame when there is no fault," Shaak said. "I seek forgiveness, even as I understand if you choose not to."

The younger woman stood there for a long moment, then Shaak was almost bowled over as Ahsoka shoved forward, arms wrapping around Shaak's waist fiercely. "Master, you have it."

The raw need for family, for belonging, such a very Togruta cultural thing, slammed through Shaak with the physical contact, and she could only fold her arms around this young huntress, holding her there.


End file.
